Editor
Some unions have earned themselves the name “sweetheart” for a reason. Usually, the reason is that they negotiate contracts for workers that are worse than what the workers would have received without a union. Thus, they are ‘real sweethearts.’
After all those stories about public-sector unions and their budget-busting pensions wreaking havoc city and states, here’s one about a private-sector union (the Teamsters) negotiating a contract so bad that even the Department of Labor is doing an investigation.
The Labor Department is investigating a bus company whose employees make less than minimum wage transporting some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, the Daily News has learned.
Some of the workers at Outstanding Transport are making as little as $3.90 an hour, well below the state-mandated $7.15, for busing the mentally and physically handicapped to occupational and educational programs, pay stubs show.
[snip] The nearly 100 matrons’ salaries are weekly and assume that they can perform all of their duties in just four to five hours a day,
Under their contracts negotiated by Local 854, it’s not possible to reach minimum wage for an eight-hour day until they have logged five years at the company, the contract shows.
The matrons also get no paid sick days, and employees who are there less than five years don’t have health benefits. Several have ended up in homeless shelters for stretches of time, while others are facing eviction, workers said.
Local 854 officials said they had helped improve workers’ pay and that the matrons voted overwhelmingly in favor of the contract two years ago. “This is the local’s first contract for these workers,” said Fred Winters. “This union has improved a bad situation.”
Outstanding Transport owner Charles Curcio had no sympathy for his employees. “It’s just some disgruntled employees,” he said. “They have a union contract.”
Members of the union reform group Teamsters for a Democratic Union blame Local 854 for the raw deal.
“It’s the same kind of treatment that we’re getting from 854,” said Pierre Jerome, a reform group member who is a driver at Empire State Bus. “The union is in bed with the company.”
Given that the Teamsters dues range from $15 to $75 per month, according to records on file with the Department of Labor, one would think that the Teamsters would, at a minimum, try to negotiate a contract where the employees earn at least minimum wage.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.
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